The Confederate Flag and Racism

Karen Russell writes the following in her article on Huffington Post this morning:

On what planet is the Confederate Flag NOT racist? Here on Planet Earth, the Klan uses the Confederate Flag as symbol of white supremacy. Get a clue. If the Klan is using your symbol, it's racist.

To deny that it is racist is to deny common sense and to ignore recent history.

The flag enjoyed a huge renaissance during the Civil Rights era. Angry, white Southerners brought it back to show they weren't going to take this whole desegregation thing lying down. They adopted it again as a symbol of hatred and defiance. They dusted it off to terrorize blacks who had the audacity to fight Jim Crow laws.

Read the entire article here.

plez sez: i rarely pull someone else's post into plezWorld, because you can just as easily go to their post and read it yourself. but this one really resonated with me and i wanted it on my blog, as well.

i've lived in the south for over 25 years, so i've seen my fill of this offensive symbol (for a small fee, you can even have one on the license plate for your car). and i have not met one confederate flag waving yahoo who i would say is not a racist! this confederate flag issue is so wrong and so offensive on so many levels, it is hard to put emotions aside and write my thoughts coherently. but here goes:

• the "it's my heritage" argument: guess what, buddy, it's part of my heritage, too! it's just a slimy and dirty and hateful heritage: it's a heritage where hate was used to subjugate and KILL Black people, it's a heritage where Black peoples rights were abused and ignored, and it's a heritage that gives the flag waver tacit approval to speak his/her hate in public without saying a word. when you say that you are not a racist for wanting to wave or display a confederate flag, you are pissing on my leg and saying that it is raining!
  
  
• the "civil war memorabilia" argument: guess what, buddy, the civil war was fought to destroy this country and preserve the institution of slavery. i don't care how many stories about the number of slaves who fought for the confederacy, because those slaves did not know what they were fighting for (similar to our troops who are currently in Iraq, but that's for another post).
  
  
• the "you want your history, but you want to destroy mine" argument: guess what, buddy, the civil war was fought to destroy this country and preserve the institution of slavery. that is something that we should never forget and it should be part of every child's educational development. don't teach children about the nobility of the Lost Cause, teach them about the folly of the southern states judgment.
  
  
• the "states rights" argument: guess what, buddy, no state has the right to promulgate hate against its citizens. in most southern states, the Black population is very sizeable and everything possible was done to keep those citizens in check (anyone remember Jim Crow?). the people who lamented the end of Jim Crow were the same ones who were waving the confederate flag while they were doing it! this is no different than a group of skinheads waving a nazi swaskita, it is no less hateful or threatening.

South Carolina should not have been given the opportunity to host neither the Republican nor the Democratic debates on national television. i specifically wrote nothing about the debates because i did not watch either debate, it is part of my personal boycott of the state (i only go there or go through there if necessary).

[hat tip: The Huffington Post]

Georgia's Confederate History Month - update

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the bill that would designate April as Confederate History and Heritage Month will not be going before the Georgia State Senate. An excerpt from the AJC reads:

Senate Bill 283 passed a key Senate committee a few days after Republican leaders in the House initially gave a lukewarm response to a request by the state NAACP for the General Assembly and Perdue to apologize for slavery.

State Rep. Al Williams (D-Midway) said he planned to file a resolution calling for recognition and reconciliation of the state's role in slavery, and he gained the support of Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah).

"I'm a good team player," Mullis said. "I was prepared to ask for SB 283, but I saw that leadership determined it was unavailable." Mullis said he is scheduled to meet with Williams this week, and looks forward to working with him to see if they can work on proposals that recognize slavery and the Confederacy.

plez sez: My my my... how the worm has turned! Last week, Sen. Mullis was pretty adamant about not tying slavery to his Confederate Month bill. I guess the Senate leadership must have gotten to him about the error of his ways.

I've already stated my opposition to this bill and the addition of a line about slavery isn't going to do much to change my stance. But with the legislative session winding down, I'm pretty sure it won't see the light of day this time around; I guess ole Sonny Perdue will just have issue his perfunctory recognition of Confederate History Month without the law.

Oh yeah... you read that right: the governor will issue a proclamation for Confederate History Month in April just like he's always done! Senate Bill 283 was just going to be the state law in case some wayward governor decided not to do it! Now do you see why I oppose it?

I wonder if someone in the Georgia State Senate read my blog and decided to let this bill die in committee? *smile*

Georgia's Confederate History and Heritage Month

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran an article on how a panel of the Georgia State Senate passed a measure that would permanently establish April as Confederate History and Heritage Month. This bill comes up a week after the NAACP asked the Georgia Legislature to consider making an apology for slavery.

Excerpts of the AJC article follows:

A bill that would permanently establish April as Confederate History and Heritage Month in Georgia sailed through a Senate committee Thursday without any opposition.

Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), the sponsor of Senate Bill 283, told the Senate Rules Committee that the proposal would help promote tourism in the state and preserve an important part of the state's and the nation's history.

"I'm not doing this for controversial reasons, but to commemorate a struggle that happened," said Mullis, whose North Georgia hometown was the site of a major Civil War battle in 1863.

The proposal has offended some civil rights leaders, who last week asked the Legislature and Gov. Sonny Perdue to offer a symbolic apology for the state's role in slavery. The Rev. Francys Johnson, the NAACP's Southeast region director, said the organization is "vehemently opposed" to Mullis' bill and finds it hypocritical.

"At the same time that the proponents of this bill want to deny any responsibility for state sanctioned and sponsored slavery from 1755 to the end of the Civil War, they still feel the responsibility to honor the treasonous conduct of the Confederacy. It doesn't seem like you can have it both ways.

"You can't honor the past and not take responsibility for it."

Mullis said he has been working on the bill for several months, long before lawmakers and civil rights groups asked for the apology.

Senate Bill 283, if approved by the Senate and the House, would encourage Georgians each April to honor the Confederacy, its history, soldiers and the people who "contributed to the cause of Southern Independence."

The bill also encourages the Georgia Civil War Commission to develop a curriculum to teach Georgia's Confederate history in elementary and high schools, as well as colleges and universities.

Reginald Bohannon, 46, of College Park said that he has no problem with a curriculum that teaches state Confederate history in schools as long as the lessons include both the good and bad parts of history.

"Yes, teach how Georgia had the second-most Civil War sites," Bohannon said. "But also teach that Georgia was on the wrong side of black people's freedom. Teach how some Georgians were Christians, yet condoned lynching, murder and Jim Crow."

The next step for the bill is for the Senate Rules Committee to decide if and when the proposal should come up for a vote by the full Senate.

Click here to view Senate Bill 283 which would establish the month of April as Confederate History and Heritage Month.

plez sez: Here we go again, first it was the Confederate Battle Emblem on the Georgia State flag and now it's this. It appears that my slack-jawed-tobacco-chewing-Confederate-flag-waving-trailer-trash-loving-treasonous-miscreant neighbors, also known as the inbred occupants of the Georgia State Senate, have taken it upon themselves to leave their indelible stain on the fabric of Georgian history.

Despite the fact that the formation of the Confederate States of America was an act of treason against the United States of America, despite the fact that the Civil War was bitterly fought to preserve the institution of slavery (in spite of their ceaseless drivel about taxes and states' rights), and despite the fact that Confederate President Jefferson Davis was a cross dressing fairy (look it up, when the Union army caught up with him, he was captured wearing a dress and patent leather pumps!)... the mindset of those in the Georgia State Senate who support this measure is the same mindset of those who - 146 years ago - split and plunged this country into Civil War.

Personally, I'm having trouble understanding why ANYONE would find any honor in glorifying an ancestry that wrought such misery, hate, bigotry, war, the KKK, and treason! And to think that these cretins want the public schools to incorporate Confederate History into their curriculum; I'm sure their version of history is in stark contrast to what I happen to know is true (there were no happy Negros shufflin' and grinnin' in the watermelon patch). The scars and cancerous lesions of the Confederacy continue to plague and badger the Black community to this day, yet these same people scour in disbelief when the NAACP asks for a token apology for slavery!

I'm not big on apologies, especially from people who had absolutely nothing to do with the "Peculiar Institution," but by the same token, I don't feel that they can have it both ways: honoring their past while dishonoring mine!